Enrollment Problems Increasing, Soviet Communist Party Admits

By BILL KELLER, Special to The New York Times

Published: July 12, 1989

MOSCOW, July 11—
The Soviet Communist Party is troubled by dwindling recruitment and a steep decline in prestige, according to an unusually candid collection of articles and letters published today in Moscow's main party newspaper.

The material included an article by a teacher at a top party training school who reported that many of the most active young party candidates are defecting to join informal political organizations, where the activities are ''more relevant and effective.''

Occasional letters expressing anguish about the condition of the party began to creep into the press last year, but the hand-wringing has become more pronounced since March, when many prominent party figures were trounced in the first competitive elections for a new national legislature. Special Concern in Leningrad

In another sign of the party's distress, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the President and party leader, today went to Leningrad, where voters rejected the six top Communists in the city's party organization. The defeated Leningrad officials have refused to give up their party leadership positions.

At the time of the elections, Mr. Gorbachev said the outcome was not a repudiation of the party. Emphasizing that nearly 90 percent of the winners were party members, he said the elections were a victory of fresher and more progressive Communists over conservative party functionaries.

But the party-controlled press is beginning to admit that the party itself is held in low repute.

The declining prestige of the party is most evident in statistics showing plummeting enrollment of new party members, despite the fact that membership has traditionally brought career advancement and privileges.

According to data published recently in the journal of the party Central Committee, induction of new members began to fall off in 1987, and last year plunged 20 percent. After years of steady growth, the total party membership barely held steady at 19.5 million.

The party does not publish statistics on the number of people who quit, but the letters published today in Moskovskaya Pravda indicated that this, too, has become a growing problem. Doing Their Own Thing

One writer, the party secretary at a Moscow metallurgical factory, reported that in the first six months of this year more workers in that factory had quit the party than had joined.

''The most active Communists often leave to 'do their own thing' - that is, they join more lively and flexible, more relevant and effective voluntary movements,'' wrote the teacher at the party training school.

Several writers said the greatest blow to the party's prestige was its decision to reserve 100 seats in the new 2,250-member Congress for deputies chosen by the party without a vote of the general public.

''No matter which way you look at it, the party still retains Stalin's pattern, a rigid, command-administrative structure,'' the teacher wrote. ''It lags behind the changes in life. It cannot prevent undesirable changes and it lags behind the positive ones.''